How do I 'archive' a form so changes to the template don't affect

[Lou2007]

I have a number of Infopath forms stored on a Sharepoint site in a folder. I
need to ensure that future changes made to the form template file do not
affect forms created in the past. I've been advised that any changes made to
the template file will always affect the forms in that library.

I therefore think that the best option is to export and store the older
forms in a separate folder to the new ones on Sharepoint and change the file
type. This will also make it easier to search for new/old forms. I'm not sure
what the best way of doing this is though. I can save the files as .mht in
the current folder and then move them to the other folder but this is messy
and time consuming as there are a lot of files.

Is there an easy way to export the Infopath form to a new folder on
Sharepoint and store it in a format so it won't be affected by changes to the
form template?

 

[Bryan Phillips]

You could use VS.Net or SharePoint Designer to attach a workflow to the
doc lib where the xsn files are stored so that the workflow
automatically moves the xml files whenever an xsn is updated.

One point though, as long as you don't violate the main schema, old
forms will still be loadable. The main thing is to make the views'
controls enforce validation instead of making the schema do it.

--
Bryan Phillips
MCT, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE
Microsoft MVP - Client Application Development
Blog: http://bphillips76.spaces.live.com
Web Site: http://www.composablesystems.net